Pontificator’s Laws

Second Law: When the Bible alone is our authority, the Bible ceases to be our authority.

Third Law: It’s one thing to read Scripture and the Fathers; it’s quite another thing to read Scripture through the Fathers.

Fourth Law: A church that does not understand itself as the Church, outside of which there is no salvation, is not the Church but a denomination or sect.

Fifth Law: When it comes to doctrine, earlier is better, except when it’s not.

Sixth Law: When the Church Fathers and the Rabbis of the Talmud agree on a commandment of God, odds are God spoke it.

Seventh Law: Justification by faith is not a theory of salvation; it is the verbal and sacramental enactment of salvation.

Eighth Law: Any christology, soteriology, or ecclesiology that undermines the Church’s evangelistic mission to the heathen and their baptismal conversion to Jesus Christ is wrong.

Ninth Law: If a Catholic cannot name at least one article of faith that he believes solely on the basis of the authoritative teaching of the Magisterium, he’s either a saint or a Protestant.

Tenth Law: All dogmas of the Church Catholic are infallible, but some are more infallible than others.

Eleventh Law: If you are not willing to prostrate yourself before the Holy Gifts and adore, worship, and pray to the glorified Lord Jesus Christ, there present under the forms of bread and wine, you really do not believe in the real presence.